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Monday, 6 June 2016

A United States-based Child Rights activist and a member of National Council of Child Rights Advocate Nigeria (NACCRAN), Dr. Funmilayo Ogunleye-Hancock, has vehemently blamed the Nigerian film industry (Nollywood) for the increasing number of rape cases in the country.

Hancock expressed her displeasure at a press conference yesterday in Abuja, where she stated that her intention being a member of Nigerians in Diaspora was to find out what are the needs of the nation, and how can those in the Diaspora help, particularly in the area of children, poverty as well as proffering solutions to the problems.

Hancock noted that Nollywood should have been used as a tool to get rid of the menace or reduced to the barest minimum in the society, lamenting that reverse is the case as it is now being used as a tool to fuel rape in the society.

The Ekiti State-born child rights activist noted that her aim is to bring so many people out of poverty, adding that every year, her NGO offers scholarship to 44 children in the state, and that the scheme had been on for past 10 years.

According to her, “In a lot of our movies these days, we intend to add rape scenes in them, which is not helpful, and I don’t like that, because if we are talking about getting rid of that situation, we shouldn’t be fuelling it. It just like almost every movie that I watch, there is always a rape scene, and I think we are promoting that further because the more you watch such scene, the more it goes in your heart.”

She further emphasised that “if it is something that we are trying to get rid of, we will express so in our movies, because in most movies, they do them without repercussion, that is the thing that bothers me most, it is one thing to show a woman is raped, it is another thing to show there is a repercussion.

“But in these movies, they are raped, and the victims are also penalised…we see a lot of such movies these days, but the movie industry can help out in this situation because many people watch movies.

‘’Even if the government is not able to do much to help, our movie industry should be able to quit promoting fraud and rape. The fight against rape should be taken seriously.”

The activist revealed that though some people are perpetrating the act too in America, the difference between America and Nigeria is that the laws are implemented, and that no one is above the law.